Thursday, October 07, 2010

Hidup-Mati Akhbar Melayu

Did you know that the largest circulation daily is a BM-language newspaper, the Harian Metro? And yet, the future of credible Malay language newspapers are in the balance. Why is that? Why are advertisers shunning the Malay dailies? And why are the people who claim to fight for Press freedom calling for Utusan Malaysia, the oldest Malay newspaper, to be boycotted?

At a tribute to the nation's 8th Tokoh Wartawan Negara, CC Liew, yesterday at the Sime Darby Convention in KL, former editor-in-chief of Utusan Malaysia (and the 7th TWN) Zainudin Maidin aka Zam recalled how Utusan Malaysia was helping out Sin Chew Jit Poh, the newspaper CC Liew was editing, by providing it with newsprint. This was after the Operasi Lalang in 1987 and Sin Chew was one of the 3 papers that had been suspended during the crackdown. Sin Chew did not even have the newsprint to publish the next day's edition. Business rivalry meant that the other Chinese media groups were not going to help out Sin Chew.

Utusan should just have massage parlour ads like the Malay Mail, and along adds like in Metro, then sales will improve and not keep harping on how it helped Sin Chiew. I'm sure Sin Chiew, now will return the favour if Umno does the right thing and sell Utusan to them. Yes, let Sin Chiew own Utusan in the truest form and spirit of One Malaysia.

Why do advertisers shun Malay newspapers you ask. May I ask you then, what does it make me or my company or my products when all that, say, Utusan represents is hate? Does it mean my company and my products also condone all that Utusan says and represents?

If this should not matter, then it should be quite alright too if we advertised in smut magazines and tabloids. But of course in Malaysia we don't have smut tabloids and magazines. But we could in sites which pop up when you do a Google search on, say, "Malay sex!!"

But you see, even the crooks amongst the business community will not want to associate their companies and products with garbage. That is what Utusan is.

In fact I recall when at Blog House, those days when we went on the campaign to boycott newspapers, I had suggested that we should actually target the advertisers and send them reminders about what exactly, by them advertising in these garbage newspapers, they support and concur with. I suppose slowly, but surely, advertisers are beginning to realise this themselves and hopefully they are shying away from Utusan in droves. Without circulation and without advertisements, boy oh boy, I think that is a more deserving death for Utusan, don't you think?

Rocky, let us examine the facts. Utusan's revenue for six months of 2010 was RM155 mil, down from RM164for six mths of 2009. Utusan suffered a net loss of RM11 mil for six months of 2010 against a loss of RM7 mil for six mths of 2009. Clearly Utusan is losing money. It should ask itself WHY?. Advertisers are not shunning the Malay dailes. If they are, can you tell us why the Malaysian Reserve and the Malay Mail is not flushed with advertisments?. It all depens on the product. If you have a good product, people will come. That is why TV3, which is owned by a Malay company is doing well raking in advertisment money. Is Utusan catering for the masses or is it playing cheer leader for some private investor.I understand Syed Mokthar owns about a third of Utusan. Now, lets look at Media Chinese Int Ltd, in which Sin Chiew is a member company. Revenue for 6 mths of 2010 RM342 mil versus RM280 mil for 6 mths of 2009. Profit for 6 mths of 2010 RM43 mil, versus profit of RM15 mil in six mths of 2009. Utusan's staff cost is RM58 mil, which means, for every RM3 Utusan makes, RM1 is being paid as salary. Rocky, nobody is trying to close Utusan, as we can see, being badly managed, UTUSAN is closing itself down slowly and surely.

If the advertisement revenues are not on par with Chinese or English dailies, then the NEP objectives of achieving parity with others have not been achieved, contrary to claims by some. Only when the Malay economy is more extensively integrated with the mainstream economy will the advertisements also go up.

Seriously, the quality of the articles in these newspapers is so poor I'd be embarrassed to read them. Because of their low readership, companies do not find it worthwhile to advertise in them. It's a simple explanation. I suppose in time they'll be distributed for free similar to the MM, which I also don't bother to read.

I think Malay should not be a language all together. When I first came to Malaya in 1933 at the age of 15 from Southern India I could not speak Malay. To my surprise in 3 months I can speak with any Malays that I met and this prompt me to check how many words in Malay did I learn to be able to communicate in the language. You guess? Believe me? I counted and in total I only know 45 Malays words and there I speak their language, what kind of language is this?

The future of credible Malay papers in the balance? I see Sinar Harian doing quite well for a fledgling paper.

Utusan is & was a victim of its own excess. When you act like a broadsheet version of Suara Perkasa or BM edition of Der Sturmer people will stop buying. When your reputation for truth & accuracy is no better than Mastika advertising firms will pull out. The newsagent near my house is only stocking a few copies now. "Tak laku" he says.

Unless they can change the rats in mgmt, editors & quality of reporting it will die. Sad to see an old pre Merdeka paper die but they dug their own grave.

Btw an x-classmate informed me the circulation has been heavily Enron-ed with free distribution to schools, colleges, and Government departments. This guy works at M.P.

Those with shares in Utusan Group better get rid of them. Dead cat don't bounce high enough to recoup losses.

Utusan needs to decide if it wants to be a mouth piece 4 certain individuals or a business entity. No one is boycoting Utusan but have u gone through their biz, sports and world stories? Bad as their layout.

Aiya is simple, is the quality of the readers that decide the Ad that you can attract. Why spend on Ad where the average readers are Mat Rampit? Secondly we businessman don't like to put up Ad in papers that cook stories, tell lies and editors with 3rd world brain otherwise our product would look like them.

Sin Chiew on the other hand is a serious paper that check their story before publishing, they have an international outlook that always report of the important of global competition, so we love to advertise in Sin Chiew.

Rocky: convert Malay Mail to a Malay newspaper (why is it called Malay Mail if it's not in Malay?). Then show pictures of tits on the first page every day. I'm sure your paper will sell, and there'll be a stampede of companies wanting to advertise in it! :))

1. Najib's weak link is not his wife but his youngest brother Nazir Razak, the wonder banker who can do no wrong and who says he does not need help.

2. Nazir sits on the EPF investment panel, nd guess what? He has been pushing for EPF to get involve in projects with his clients.

3. All the while Azlan Zainol the big man at epf is keeping silent because he does not want to upset Najib and reducing his chances of getting renewed.

4. But Azlan cannot hold his peace anymore.

5. It is confirmed that Azlan will leave next year so he is telling anyone who will listen and complaining about how Nazir has been using Jibby's influence to push through investments important to cimb and nazir while sitting on the epf investment panel.

6. Same story at Ministry of Finance. Datuk Puteh, Datuk Zulaikha and the secretary-general of treasury Tan Sri Aziz have been conducting a whispering campaign against Nazir n CIMB.

7. They say they feel pressured to give CIMB all the MOF's business, the latest being the rm800 million Sukuk Bonds.

8. Whenever word spreads that MOF is thinking of spreading the business to other banks, they get a call from Nazir or one of his guys at cimb, dropping big brother's name.

9. With elections around the corner, Najib is courting disaster by making civil servants angry at the growing influence of his brother.

10. Worse still Nazir feels slighted by Dr Mahathir and has started a campaign to discredit the former pm and block any investments from Mahathir's cronies like Syed Mokhtar and Daim Zainuddin.

11. To go to war with Dr Mahathir, he has the help of his good friend Khazanah boss Azman Mokhtar.

12. Azman will block Syed Mokhtar's bid for UEM and has also blocked Daim's move to privatise PLUS.

13. Nazir is upset Dr Mahathir blasted him for questioning the NEP.

14. He is also upset that mahathir has started digging up info on the billions in fees cimb has made in pushing deals at the expense of the country.

15. At a meeting two weeks ago, Mahathir told Najib that Nazir was a weak link.

16. Now Nazir is hitting back, funding a campaign to discredit Mahathir.

17. He has hired international pr outfit to dig up dirt on Mahathir and his son, Mokhzani.

18. This has consequences for Najib because he may be old but Dr Mahathir is a fighter.

19. Now that Nazir is gunning after Dr Mahathir, there is nothing stopping Dr Mahathir from unleashing hell on Nazir and his protector Najib.

1. Najib's weak link is not his wife but his youngest brother Nazir Razak, the wonder banker who can do no wrong and who says he does not need help.

2. Nazir sits on the EPF investment panel, nd guess what? He has been pushing for EPF to get involve in projects with his clients.

3. All the while Azlan Zainol the big man at epf is keeping silent because he does not want to upset Najib and reducing his chances of getting renewed.

4. But Azlan cannot hold his peace anymore.

5. It is confirmed that Azlan will leave next year so he is telling anyone who will listen and complaining about how Nazir has been using Jibby's influence to push through investments important to cimb and nazir while sitting on the epf investment panel.

6. Same story at Ministry of Finance. Datuk Puteh, Datuk Zulaikha and the secretary-general of treasury Tan Sri Aziz have been conducting a whispering campaign against Nazir n CIMB.

7. They say they feel pressured to give CIMB all the MOF's business, the latest being the rm800 million Sukuk Bonds.

8. Whenever word spreads that MOF is thinking of spreading the business to other banks, they get a call from Nazir or one of his guys at cimb, dropping big brother's name.

Bro, it does not need rocket science to figure out why the Sin Chiew for that matter TheStar makes more money than Utusan or even the NST, just pick a Sin Chiew paper or TheStar open it up and Lo and Behold the tons of advertisements for jobs, advertisement, sale of properties etc. The Sin Chiew is well supported by the affluent Chinese commercial and merchant community no matter what it published as it publishes agenda for the Chinese community.

Bro Praxis and Anon-oko- is also right. If Malays have economic parity with the Chinese then Utusan and Harian advertising revenues will go up that's a given. Until that time happens Utusan have to swallow their loss or cut cost to stay afloat lah. Kalau kena paycut haircut ke then so be it as they carry the torch for the Malay agenda kan.

Anyway in the age of the broadband internet you can sell or buy or advertise almost everything through cyberspace its as east as mudah.com. So to casually say that the Quality of the editorial or publication or readership of a certain newspaper is better than the other newspaper is really subjective and sometimes downright misleading could be racist even.

In fact as internet advertising awareness and popularity grows as fast as efficient broadband coverage in Malaysia, I see the old style publishing of advertisement in newspapers will soon disappear and so will the mega advertisement revenue of Sin Chew, The Star newspapers. Its happening readily everywhere round the world where broadband coverage is high, that moment will reach Malaysia's shore sooner than later as the broadband internet baby boomers joins the employment ranks.

I think Malay should not be a language all together. When I first came to Malaya in 1933 at the age of 15 from Southern India I could not speak Malay. To my surprise in 3 months I can speak with any Malays that I met and this prompt me to check how many words in Malay did I learn to be able to communicate in the language. You guess? Believe me? I counted and in total I only know 45 Malays words and there I speak their language, what kind of language is this?

10:44 PM

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Two things, anon:

1. Bahasa Malaysia is easy to learn, but hard to master.

2. Malays adapt to other people speaking their language in their daily lives.

A lot of craps have been posted in the blogs with regards to the status of the Malay Newspapers, especially Utusan Malaysia. Most of the argument spelt out touched on the stories published, circulation and readership numbers.

Also not spared is the Harian Metro, the largest circulated newspaper in the country. So much craps have been thrown at these two newspapers, and yet, the stakeholders of these papers did not respond. What a shame.

I like to remind everyone that the Malay newspapers, even Utusan Malaysia when they were doing extremely well both in terms of readership and circulation numbers being high, did not enjoy strong advertising support then.

This is largely because advertisers felt that readers of the Malay newspapers has poor purchasing power as compared to readers of the English newspapers.

But, I believe that the trend is reversing now and I am sure too that if you are a reader of Harian Metro or Berita Harian, you can see that more than half of these newspapers contained advertisements, including those owned by multinational companies.

Also, an advertisng agency friend of mine, also mentioned that the educated and well paid Malays read Harian Metro.

I think this trend will continue for a long long time.

Hence, the argument that Malay readers have low purchasing power is no longer true.

I am a reader of Harian Metro, and I don’t see the paper being flooded with sex stories all the time. There are and there will be, a few, but the content is not meant to entertain but to warn us of what is happening to our society. We need to be on alert and ensure that such things do not happen to us and our families.

I am disappointed that there are some bloggers who failed to see this but think of themselves as intelligent people yet continue to post negative and without basis comments about the Malay newspapers.

PKR’s campaign to shun away Utusan really demonstrates how weak the party is. What is it that they are afraid of? Utusan telling lies or maybe Utusan is telling the truth. The truth then will definitely open the party’s supporters.PKR supporters as they claimed are middle class Malaysia, with proper education can differentiate between truths and lies. Taking this into consideration, PKR should not be afraid of Utusan.Furthermore, such campaign, coming from a political party that promotes freedom of speech etc is somehow confusing. PKR should really give the freedon to its supporters to read whatever they want. I never heard BN ever boycotting Harakah, Suara Keadilan & other opposition newspaper.

in the name of free economy and free press, utusan should be sold off to Rupert Murdoch. he can turn around the company and make a zillion out of it. we, the malay race can have the last laugh as utusan is better than sin chew, the star or whatever paper in this country of ours...he...he...ha...ha...ha

One thing which Audit Bureau of Circulations Malaysia report, especially the one ending 31 December 2009 shows. is that unlike the popular rhetoric and perception propagated through social discourse, overall newspaper circulation in Malaysia has basically held up, contrary to the claims by new-media proponents that online publications are robbing print publications of readership.

What is true however, is that while overall circulation of the Bahasa Malaysia and English-language newspapers has more or less also held up, there has been a shift of readers between different papers within each language segment, such as towards Harian Metro in the BM segment and The Sun in the English segment, while the more serious BM papers have seen their circulation drop and The Star in particular among the English-language papers.

Of course, if you also consider ADEX figures of advertising revenue, then it could be another story.

As for the mushrooming online publications, I wonder how long they will last if their investors were stop funding them, once they no longer serve their political agendas.

When your newspaper's circulation goes down, what do you do? Do a revamp, change the masthead, change the layout and design, of course. Setiap Pengarang Kumpulan yang baru akan memastikan wajah suratkhabar diubah during his reign. It is always about a physical change, never content. Kalau ubah content pun, the tendency is make it more 'sexy'. Ikut selera pembaca konon.

Rocky, just sharing my thoughts... Whatever negative views people have about Utusan Malaysia, I have some good things to say about the paper. it has done me a lot of good over the years. My Malay is much better than it was before. Now, I even write speeches in Malay for heads of large organisations; this has been going on for a few years now.I enjoy reading Mingguan Malaysia, especially write-ups on issues of national interests. In spite of what critics say, these writings help me to see things from a different and wider perspective. I have learnt a lot from what Mingguan (and Utusan) has to offer in making me a thinking Malay.If there are things bad about Utusan and Mingguan Malaysia in terms of stance and slant, it's the same for any other newspapers which I read - Berita Harian, Harian Metro, Sinar Harian, Kosmo!, New Straits Times, The Star, Malay Mail and The Sun.I have no problem reading all these papers - even Harakah, if need be. If I could understand Mandarin and Tamil, I would have read those papers too. We may have no control over people's perception of us, especially negative thoughts, but it's an enriching experience nevertheless. So whether a tabloid or a broadsheet, they serve their purpose. In fact, in Malaysia, the term "tabloid" has lost its original meaning synonymous to mosquito newspapers.Whether a paper is thrash or otherwise, it's really up to us to be discerning and to use our critical thinking skills when poring over articles and news. It's unfair to make judgements based on issues published which we feel are unfavourable to us, especially controversies.I think Utusan is as parochial as any other vernacular papers. Even the English language Star is skewed towards the interest of a particular community more than some others. And if there are Malay tabloids which are seen as thriving on sensational issues, they are not alone. Sensational stories have been carried by other vernacular papers long before the birth of Kosmo! and Harian Metro.